April 1, 2011

Many of us supported this president because he promised to bring back the constitutional balance after the theories of Yoo, Delahunty, et al put the president on a par with emperors and kings in wartime. And yet in this Libya move, what difference is there between Bush and Obama? In some ways, Bush was more respectful of the Congress, waiting for a vote of support before launching us like an angry bird into the desert.

In some ways more respectful?Understatement much? Of course, Bush had years of being told he was stupid and Obama has had years of being praised for his eloquence and intelligence and decision-making ability. Kind of makes you rethink the whole self-esteem rigmarole.

King Barack: ...Pairs of male elephants to be released into the forests of America. There it is hoped that they will grow in number and the people can tame them and use them as beasts of burden. Anna: But your majesty, I don't think you mean pairs of MALE elephantsAndrew Sullivan: Shut up. Leave him alone.(King Barack and I, 2011)

Anna: Then how do you explain, your majesty, that many men remain faithful to only one wife? King Barack: They are sick Andrew Sullivan: That's right your majesity those dirty whores with their icky vaginas.(King Barack and I, 2011)

King Barack: When I sit, you sit. When I kneel, you kneel. Et cetera, et cetera, et ceteraAndrew Sullivan: Yes all majestical one. When should I kneel.King Barack:Five times a day. Oh and you should face Mecca. Just sayn'(King Barack and I, 2011)

It's hard to believe I used to read Sullivan. Aside from his manic depressive political temperament (he's either ELATED! and GUSHING! or he's in DESPAIR! BETRAYED! and uttering LAMENTATIONS!), his writing is simply cringe-inducing, full of banalities, bad metaphors and easy conclusions. It's the irritating tone of someone trying to simultaneously impress the teacher and make the kids think he's "cool".

Andrew Sullivan, next year, on all the TV shows which want a "conservative" voice (to show they're balanced): "I've been a harsh critic of Obama, but candidate X is SO much worse than him I just have to vote for the Democrats."

y'know, i kinda liked andy way back when he was delineating all the valid reasons for bush's war in iraq and the wisdom of his middle east policies in general...but now, in retrospect, he thinks that bush was an "angry bird" ?!? whatever, dude.

Starting in 2006, when Dubya grew close to Condi. And, Condi danced with the French. And, others. Dubya's poll numbers tanked. By the time he left office his "popularity rating" if you want to call it that, was at 31%.

McCain was also the wrong choice.

What can the democraps do if Obama isn't interested in leaving? What if Q-Daffy Duck remains in Libya?

Asheville is on point. Dubya went through six months of debate and soul-searching before giving the order. Andy is aggrieved because the Vacationer in Chief and the Furies didn't observe the War Powers Act, not because this is a fool's errand.

Little Zero now has us in what isn't even a civil war if reports of the 1000 rebels being all there are happen to be true.

We supposedly have two major political parties here in Amerika. You can choose the Republikans, who last lost the presidency because their guy in office thought he could do whatever he wanted, ignoring Congress and the law and the will of the people. Or you can choose the Democrats, who have now shown that their guy's administration will do whatever it wants, ignoring Congress and the law and the will of the people.

They're all social engineers. They're all big government. They've both put in place significant roadblocks to anyone from outside the system. They've solidified the support of the non-political aristocracy (read: lobbyists and interest groups!) They're all focused on short-term apparent wins, and secrecy, secrecy, secrecy... never let anyone on the outside see your mistakes. Like Don Corelone telling Santino:

The Republicans and Democrats are the same... they're the fucking Establishment! And who is the opposition? The Paul family, Kucinich, and a few others here and there. A pretty pathetic opposition.

In this sort of environment, without any effective checks and balances, and with a two-party system that has effectively morphed into a single-party State, of course the President will act like a king... or a mob boss. Why? Because he can!

When the critique of Obama is "Libya proves that he's got the Boy-King Flu just like Bush" it delegitimizes that critique.

Bush left NCLB & a Prescription Drug bailout for seniors. Obama is leaving more new Acts than you can shake a stick at - from ACA to Lily Ledbetter.

The prelude to Iraq was a frantic circus of brinksmanship & BS. The prelude to Libya was getting Arab League approval & (presumably) planning & assessment of the situation. Because of its all-air, no-ground-troops Rapid Strike Force orientation, action in Libya has been far swifter than it was in Iraq (mobilization logistics are a bitch). Nor has Obama been talking about the need to invade Libya since before his election.

PROTIP: Making existing information fit a narrative may not be as successful as making a narrative fit existing information.

Relevant critique of Obama on his real political sins (quietly expanding Bush's epic erosion of basic civil liberties & privacy, the militarization of US police forces continuing without a hiccup, his Goldman Sachs All-Stars economic team) is amazingly rare on the American Right for some reason.

Does anyone know how Sullivan's career is actually going since he bumped his head? Does someone like him have some kind of metric like ratings for TV or radio people; maybe Blog traffic, groupie count, condom usage, anything? I'm curious, he seems to have lost a lot of respect over the last few years, but has it hurt?

Swinal Flew...(or understanding the Andrew Sullivan Angry Bird Cultural Reference.)"Launched like an angry bird" is a reference to the highly addictive top ranked Finnish Designed Game App for the iPad, iPhone, (and other available platforms) in which a variety of angry birds are in sequence "slingshot launched" with a slight movement of the finger on the screen to destroy the heavily entrenched mean, nasty pigs who have stolen the egg treasures of the angry birds.

I am sure CAIR will be all over the hapless Sullivan for the clear implication that Muslims are the pigs to our angry birds. Imans will issue a fatwa calling for his death for the insensitive swine insult against the religion of peace. Oh the (in)humanity.

Saying "Obama and Bush are the same" because Obama ordered 100 cruise missiles and a few sorties, vs. Bush's INVADING AND OCCUPYING A COUNTRY FOR A DECADE with 200,000 men-- truly, one does not have to be a genius to see that it's not the same thing.

We are not at war in Libya. It sort of makes Sullivan's argument moot.

Saying "Obama and Bush are the same" because Obama ordered 100 cruise missiles and a few sorties, vs. Bush's FREEING 50 MILLION IRAQIS FROM A DICTATOR WHO DESTABLIZED THE ENTIRE REGION WITH HIS ONGOING WARS AND USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS with 200,000 men-- truly, one does not have to be a genius to see that it's not the same thing.

You can engage in any kind of semantic game you want, but weapons are being used to kill people and break things. Now you can argue if you want, that those people need killing and those things need breaking, but you can't really argue that what's happening isn't war. The targets of all that expensive military hardware certainly aren't fooled by such Newspeak.

Bush's FREEING 50 MILLION IRAQIS FROM A DICTATOR WHO DESTABLIZED THE ENTIRE REGION WITH HIS ONGOING WARS AND USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS with 200,000 men-- truly, one does not have to be a genius to see that it's not the same thing.

The lack of any Iraqi popular uprising should have tipped everyone off.

Mary Beth isn't 'probably' right, she's completely and totally right. Angry Birds is only the most popular game on the planet right now. That's what Sullivan is referring to. His audience, at least, is hep enough to grasp the reference. All you guys can do is mock what you don't understand.

Which is no different than usual, actually.

I'm considered, in the relentlessly liberal area in which I live, a staunch conservative. Yet I'm not so clueless and tone-deaf that I have no idea what's going on - even among people I disagree with.

I actually LISTEN to the other side, and consider what they have to say on its own merits. Often I find their arguments without merit, but I don't stop listening just because I generally disagree. (This is how you LEARN.)

But the Althouse crowd? They stopped listening ages ago. They come here only to reassure each other how correct they are.

THAT, they can hear. That's what they want to hear.

Let's review:

madawaskan said...Angry bird(s)?Does a bird need launched?

Yes, they do. FAIL.

Ron said...Angry birds? What are we, the United States of Farmville?

Wrong game. FAIL.

PaulV said...Dementia?

No, he's simply more in touch with pop culture than you are. FAIL.

Pastafarian said...Maybe the "angry bird" thing is in reference to falconry... It's an odd reference

What can I tell ya... FAIL.

Palladian said...It's hard to believe I used to read Sullivan... his writing is simply cringe-inducing, full of... bad metaphors...

King: Because it is natural. It is like old Siamese saying. A girl is like a blossom, with honey for just one man. A man is like a honey bee and gather all he can. To fly from blossom to blossom a honey must be free. But blossom must not ever fly from bee to bee to bee. Anna: Hee hee. Oh your majesty in England we have a far different attitude. We believe for a man to be truly happy he must love one woman and one woman only. King: This idea was invented by woman. Andrew Sullivan: Yes, dirty smelly nasty icky women. Can I show you my stinger your Majesty?(King Barack and I, 2011)

What both jim (who I'm still not sure isn't some sort of sarcastic parody of an avid Sullivan reader) and others keep missing in their timelines is the decade (give or take a few months) that we spend patrolling a no-fly zone in Iraq and periodically bombing Saddam's infrastructure to try to force him into compliance with various UN resolutions. They are also missing the two weeks of dithering of the Obama administation when the rebels were winning and a Lybian no-fly zone that might have actually toppled Kahdaffi. Instead Obama (Hillary, really) went from zero to kinetic miltary action in about 24 hours when it looked like the whole movement would be snuffed out.

His Imperious Majesty Barack the First, President of America, Protector of the People as Long As They Know Their Place and Belong to The Right Unions, Defender of the Privileges Accrued by Attending the Right University, and Scourge of the Rich If They Don't Contribute To The Democratic Party

vs.

Her Divine Majesty Queen Mary Jane Milky Loads, Sultana of Sodom, Governess of Gomorrah, and Empress of All Urania

Bush's FREEING 50 MILLION IRAQIS FROM A DICTATOR WHO DESTABLIZED THE ENTIRE REGION WITH HIS ONGOING WARS AND USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS with 200,000 men-- truly, one does not have to be a genius to see that it's not the same thing.

The lack of any Iraqi popular uprising should have tipped everyone off.